


Complement

by CrystalRebellion



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends, F/M, Fighting, Lotura hints, Sparring, Training
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 21:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15737766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalRebellion/pseuds/CrystalRebellion
Summary: In preparation for the Kral Zera, Shiro suggests Lotor may find the training deck to be useful.  When he arrives, he finds he is not the first one there.  (Mid-S5)





	Complement

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place Mid-Season 5, before the Kral Zera, but after Blood Duel.
> 
> Complement (n): A thing that completes or brings to perfection.

“Hey.”

Lotor froze in his motion and looked over his shoulder.  His sword disappeared into his gauntlet politely as he turned to face the Black Paladin standing in the doorway.

“Your technique is good,” Shiro nodded at him.  “Your exercises are flawless.”

“I do them quite frequently,” Lotor replied carefully.

“Preparations for the Kral Zera?”

Lotor nodded once in response.

Shiro took a moment to glance around the empty room, studying the sparse furniture in one of the relatively unused sitting rooms.

“I’ll move the chairs back,” Lotor hedged at the Voltron leader’s silence.

“Just, doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of space in here for practice.  Wouldn’t you prefer to use the training deck?  There’s even some training AIs programmed in – they probably won’t be much of a challenge for you, but still more than just motions through air.  If you want.  This is, after all, your thing, but I thought I’d let you know.”

Lotor blinked in surprise before quickly schooling his face.

“Thank you.”

“If you do decide to use the space, it’s down the hall all the way to the lift, swing a right, it’ll be on your left.  There are showers attached to the facility as well,” he added.  He shrugged and gave a brief wave.  “I’ve got my own preparations to make,” he said before continuing down the corridor.

He watched the Paladin leave before returning his attention to the chairs he had pushed to the sides of the room.

* * *

Lotor hesitated outside the panel coded for the training deck, his hand hovering above the interface.  He exhaled, recognizing he had been invited to use the facility, after all.

While the tension had slowly de-escalated between himself and the Paladins, there was still a heavy reticence and wariness that hovered over the castle.  With only two notable exceptions, the hostility had overall decreased. 

He sighed.

His fingers tapped at the screen and the hydraulic doors opened silently.

Lotor froze, his eyes widening in surprise.  Wordlessly, he stepped into the room and around the scrap of metal and wires littering the doorway, the gate closing behind him.

* * *

“Again.”

“Vitals are not optimal,” the automated voice rang out in the training deck.  Allura wiped her brow, frustrated that her computer was ignoring a directive.

“I said, _again_.”

A silence echoed in the room before the machine whirred to life.  Allura kicked aside the mangled part of what used to be a droid as a fully formed one appeared before her.  Again.

The Altean took the moment that the systems integrated the data from the last spar into the algorithm for the new fighter and tightened the bands holding her hair up.  She rocked back on her heels, flexing the muscles in her thighs before leaning forward into a battle stance, waiting for the automated sentry to power on.

Her fists curled as she braced.  Fabric snaked around her bare knuckles, offering limited protection from her strikes as she practiced her hand to hand combat.

“Commence,” the hollow voice echoed the room as the robot flared to life.

With a vigorous cry, Allura hurled herself toward the charging drone, drawing her right fist back to throw her first strike.

Within moments, the sentry fell to pieces on the ground and Allura arched her back once more.  She adjusted a single strap of the dark tank adoring her frame as the garment flowed into a pair of black work pants.

“Current kill total: thirty-seven.  Record: sixty-eight.  Proceed?”

“Again,” she replied in frustration, even as her breath caught.

“Vitals-“

“I do not _care_.  The point is to test how far I can press myself.  Did I not program that directive appropriately?  My enemies shall not relent for me to catch my breath.  I _must_ always move forward.  Another – and implement the learning algorithm for another iteration.  I need something stronger.”

“How about a living partner?”

Allura spun on heel to face the source of the noise.

She swallowed.

The Galran was regarding her coolly, an emotion she couldn’t recognize behind his guarded gaze. 

“Prince Lotor,” she acknowledged formally, finding her voice.  “Did you want to use the space?  Stars know I’ve been using it for far too long – I didn’t even think people might be waiting.  I can easily step aside if you-”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your training. But, if you’re looking for a bit more of a challenge, I can’t guarantee much as you just disassembled that last one with only your fists…”

“…I saw what was left of Zarkon,” she replied flatly as her features chilled.  “I know what you are capable of.”

“And I’ve now seen what you are capable of, Princess,” he said, nodding to the scraps scattered around the room.

Allura flushed.

Her eyes trailed up his frame before pausing on his eyes.

“So, you wish to duel me, then?”  She curtailed the strange expression on her face, unsure how the combination of alarm, fascination and curiosity would present itself.

“I would.  If you’ll have me.”

Allura exhaled before returning her look over her shoulder at the battle droid that was glowing with life, the computerized system properly recognized the princess was not ready to engage.

“Dismissed,” she said and the implementation as well as the scrap pieces were consumed by the floor.  “Your rules?”  She spoke as she returned her gaze back on him.

He walked quietly forward, pausing near the center of the room, yet still several paces away from her.  Lotor studied the Altean intently, from her rising clavicle with each breath she caught to the sweat beading across her brow and bare shoulders.

“No lethal strikes – I don’t wish to meet my end today,” he murmured after a moment – was that a hint of humor?

“I rather worry about it going the other way,” she said dryly, tilting her head to the side, studying the formidable man warily. When his brow furrowed, she continued, gesturing to him openly.  “You have both weapon and armor.  I have neither.”

“I swear it on my life,” he said quietly.

“And what does your life mean to me if I am gone?”

“…Princess?”  Lotor’s eyes widened in surprise at her defensiveness.

Alluras arms folded across her chest and she studied the leader of her enemies closely.

“I’ve seen what you can do to your opponents.  While I…” She trailed off, fumbling for words as her eyes lowered.  “Your actions _do_ seem to present your intentions for peace, how am I to know that I am not your next obstacle?”

Lotor’s gaze turned to ice.

“Are you?”

Allura flinched beneath the stoic tone, exhaling wearily as she raised her eyes once more.  A moment of contemplation passed and she decided to answer him honestly.

“I do not intend to be, no.  But I suppose that depends on where we go from here, doesn’t it?”

As he tilted his head to the side in deep thought, Allura couldn’t help but notice the shiver that rolled through the silvered locks.

“A valid point, Princess.  Allow me,” he murmured.

She stared in stark surprise as he unlatched his vambraces and set them aside.  With meticulous attention, the bulwark of his armor was removed, piece by piece, until he stood before her, bare fisted, in only his flight suit.

Allura’s heart hammered once.

Twice.

“Oh,” she murmured, stunned.

“Are we not even now?”

“I… I gather that we are,” she admitted.  “At least, in all the ways we could be.  A duel of hands, then?”

“Indeed,” he nodded toward her.  “When you’re ready.”

She studied his form as he gently bowed into a battle pose, his body rolled forward with his weight rocked back, posed to spring at a moment’s notice.

She released an exhale through her nose.

“Very well.”

Allura in turn allowed a liquidity to roll through her body.  Each muscle relaxed, every bone felt fluid.  A connectivity surged through her as all the components of her form became unified.  Once the nexus aligned, the Altean studied him a moment.  Realizing she had no fathomable idea of his weakness, she simply moved forward to test him.

She watched as his body tensed quickly, drawing in toward itself, bracing for her strike.

It found none.

Allura danced past him, simply checking the reaction speed as she slowed to a stop behind where he stood.

With a slowness that belied his lethality, he turned to face her, the twitch of a smile on his lips, the tendril of hair curling in front of his face quivering in the current her movement had left.

“Testing me, are you?”

Allura flushed as he recognized her tactic – though it was hardly more than an amateur’s move, it still reminded her of the league she had stepped into.

Sparring one on one with the Paladins had been for their benefit, not hers.  Shiro had been the only one to match her in any capacity, and even that had been short-lived.  As soon as she had augmented her style to incorporate the Altean methods, she had swiftly ended the match.

“Perhaps,” she admitted after a moment.

_He’s both fast **and** strong.  Stars, where’s the weakness?_

“My turn, then.”

Allura blinked as time moved in slow motion around her.  She watched the ripple of coiled power as it rolled through his body from his core to his limbs, moving in perfect unity.  The air flared his hair as he launched bodily toward her frame.

_Familiar._

There was something about his fighting style, the way he moved, that reminded Allura of the hours she had spent training as a child.  The total mastery, the fluidity, even the way his eyes marked his target –

She cried in alarm as the golden Galran eyes shocked her back to her match.  With an oath, she leapt from his path and rolled across the floor before sliding back to her feet.  Cursing, she glanced up just in time to see him ready a second charge.

With the efficacy of a dancer, she parried again.

_Stars, he’s fast!_

Allura was barely able to reorient herself before he was charging her again.

_He’s not letting me get the upper hand.  I had my moment at the beginning, he won’t yield that back to me,_ she realized with grim determination.  He’d afforded her the benefit of making the first charge, and like a childish fool, she’d wasted her opening on a test.  Lotor was not about to allow her that dominance in their dance again.

Each lunge, each drive, he pressed her defenses, never letting her recover.

She grunted, her shoulder sliding across the cold floor as she rolled back to her feet.

His movements were becoming predictable; she was starting to leap to her feet while still falling; to expect the next charge and to blindly move out of the way.

“You’re learning.”

She swore in Altean under her breath.

_He almost makes it sound like praise_ , she thought in frustration, once more narrowly avoiding another dive, like prey evading a hawk.  _It’s like we’ve done this befo-_

The clarity of the moment struck her so strongly she nearly froze in her tracks.

A heat settled in the core of her chest as she realized precisely how to retake the ground she had naively conceded before they had even began.

Her hair fanned around her face with the wind generated by his pass and Allura couldn’t stop the grin that perked at her lips.

As he bounced from his landing and moved toward her once more, Allura didn’t dodge.  She fixed him with an undaunted look and leaped straight up into the air, allowing her opponent to move underneath her.  Her toes touched down in the same place and she lurched toward him.

Lotor turned around just in time to defend against the Altean coming at him with her fists.  He backpedaled, finding himself on the defensive as she turned the tables in their waltz. 

Allura’s eyes widened as she found herself face-to-chest with the man.  Her plan had been to do as he had done; to press him to evade.

He did not. 

Lotor stood his ground as she collided into him like a comet.

The impact of their bodies knocked them both from their feet, steel from the floor sliding along her back as she tumbled.

Allura's frame came to rest and her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breath.

“I yield,” she murmured, conceding the match.  Coupled with the depletion of her energy with her prior exercises, Allura simply lacked the strength to get back to her feet.

“Well done.”

The voice nearly purred from overhead and her eyes snapped open to meet sharpened sapphires.  While he never touched her, Lotor’s frame was hovering over hers; his knees resting on either side of her hips, his palms on the floor beside her shoulders.

Silvered hair was disheveled and falling around him, forming a curtain around their bodies.  His own breath was ragged from exertion and he seemed to match her fatigue.

Had she worn him as much as he had worn her?

Allura stared, entranced, at the breathless man over her, and before she could stop herself, she reached for him.

The gesture was light and yet he still froze as her fingertips touched the frayed sliver of moonlight that danced between them; the single thread of his hair that defied all gravity.

With a weak smile, her hand dropped back in place across her midsection.

“That was, without equal, the best training session I’ve experienced,” she said honestly.  She found a strange sensation in being beneath the very leader of the race she had so long despised and feared.    While her form’s position was distinctly disadvantageous, she felt no alarm.

“Yes, well, I could say the same,” Lotor replied after a moment.  A second of hesitation passed – he lingered a bit longer than perhaps he should have, before he released a short exhale and leaned back, carefully rising off of her.

As Allura rolled to her side to press up to standing, he reached for her.  The princess blinked at the offered palm and warily placed her own in it.

With a courtly reverence, he eased her to her feet before releasing her hand.

“Thank you for joining me,” she nodded, folding her hands in front of her.

He bowed his head slightly in acknowledgement.

“I’m afraid that was the last of my strength for now, would you like me to show you how to use the programming for the AI system?”

“If you don’t mind, Princess,” he encouraged.

As she walked to the interface panel, she paused and tossed him a look over her shoulder.

“…You may call me Allura, you know,” she hedged gently before drawing up the display before them.

When the Galran behind her said nothing in response, she gestured to the controls, explaining how the screens depicted data and where he could adjust parameters.

“Do you need anything else?”

Allura turned to face him, her chin tilting up to meet his eyes at their close proximity.

“No, I believe I shall be fine.  Thank you.  …Allura,” he added, stilling the princess in her tracks as she stepped around him.

A hidden smile curled at her lips before she realized it, startled by the strange warmth on her cheeks.

“Good luck, Lotor,” she replied as she vacated the training deck, a strange thrum running through her bloodstream.

_It’s only adrenaline,_ she mused.

_Whatever else could it be?_


End file.
